Author Topic: Life in America - I made the move. (Read 1281867 times)

Mrs. Zog · « **Reply #8140 on:** October 09, 2019, 01:14:04 am »

When you have no traction on the $#%^%&$%# new floor...

BOZO · « **Reply #8141 on:** October 09, 2019, 01:18:18 am »

silvrav · « **Reply #8142 on:** October 09, 2019, 01:19:41 am »

In reverse our rental now has carpets and our doggy loves it.... Investigate dog socks with rubber pads, We had to get some for our male doggy as he just couldnt get use to it in SA.

Floor looks great mr Zog!

Mrs. Zog · « **Reply #8143 on:** October 09, 2019, 01:23:09 am »

I did look into dog socks, but they would stay on for exactly 0.00000 second before being chewed and probably swallowed. They make a contraption with suspenders so doggies can't take them off, but can you imagine trying to get THAT on Sammy...

Mr Zog · « **Reply #8144 on:** October 09, 2019, 01:35:24 am »

Today I kakked myself.

Well, not completely "brown shit in pants" kakked myself. But screaming like a girl and a heart rate fast enough to be a medical emergency kind of kakked myself...

You see, I was working at this dude's house which is just off the outside of the city limits. Basically a "maplotter" type setup. He had knocked his well head off when he backed his bakkie over it, and I needed to fix it and then get his well pump primed back up and running again. The well (borehole) was located just outside his pump room, which is a brick building about 6 feet square and about 6 feet high. Behind the pump room is his chicken coop...

I was almost done with getting the pump primed up again when I noticed a snake slithering into the pump room and across the pump.

Now don't get me wrong, I like snakes. I will even pick up the harmless ones and hold them for a bit before safely releasing them in a safe spot. I get upset when Maggie kills the snakes in our yard.

I pointed out the snake to the customer who told me that the snake, an American Corn Snake - harmless (to humans) constrictor, had lived in that immediate area for several years and took care of the mice and rats that were attracted to the chicken feed. So I took a couple of pics of the big snake (about 6 feet long) and continued working. The snake made its way around the pump room, then climbed up the wall and started slithering between the roof beams. I just ignored it and kept working.

I was deeply concentrating on getting the pressure switch adjusted correctly when I suddenly heard screaming behind and above me! As I turned my head to see what was going on I saw this snake body heading right at my face!

I screamed like a little girl. I let out some choice expletives. Several of them. Whilst I tried to escape my imminent and terrifying death by climbing up onto the water pump and pressure tank...

Then I took a breath and looked again.

The screaming was getting quieter. And the bottom half of the snakes body was rapidly slithering back up into the rafters...

The fucking snake had just nailed a rat / mouse up in the roof and the mouse was screaming until the snake had constricted it to the point where it could no longer breathe.

Jissis…. If I had been watching the snake it would have been fine. But I was busy, concentrating, working my ass off in a very hot and humid pump room.

The customer didn't laugh at me. Not while I was still there anyway. But I'm sure he was rolling on the lawn when I left

Some pics of the snake before the rodent genocide, and after. The roof was too high for me to see into, but I lifted my phone up with the flash on, and took a few pics until I got him. You can actually see the rodent in the coils of the snake. Finally a couple of the fucker looking down at me after he had eaten his lunch as if to say "what, did I scare you?"

silvrav · « **Reply #8145 on:** October 09, 2019, 02:12:46 am »

fokkit mr Zog - got coffee all over my keyboard, just imagining you, screaming like a girl and jumping at the same time pulling your legs together

Tom van Brits · « **Reply #8146 on:** October 09, 2019, 03:09:44 am »

I can only imagine the customer telling his wife and friends tonight

BOZO · « **Reply #8147 on:** October 09, 2019, 03:14:30 am »

Whahaha, well done. I would not have got that far.

Oubones · « **Reply #8148 on:** October 09, 2019, 06:36:13 am »

His wellhouse would have become a smellhouse very fast!

I would have done something more than just in my pants.
I prefer my cat for rodent control, but also like and leave the snakes to do their thing.

You did well in the wellhouse there!

OomD · « **Reply #8149 on:** October 09, 2019, 08:16:45 am »

I'm sorry Mr. Z but I had a good laugh at your expense.

Fudmucker · « **Reply #8150 on:** October 09, 2019, 03:14:39 pm »

I imagined something like this...

big oil · « **Reply #8151 on:** October 09, 2019, 06:36:28 pm »

I believe I need defibrillation after reading this,
that’s shithouse funny

Mr Zog · « **Reply #8152 on:** October 10, 2019, 02:07:36 am »

I'm glad y'all enjoyed the laugh

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't all that funny

We have a cold front moving through. It rained most of the day today, my rain gauge showed just a shade over 3 inches for the last 3-4 days when I got home.

The cold front is bringing very cold temps too, tonight it will drop down to 23 deg C, and tomorrow it will only get up to around 31 deg C. Friday will be even colder at 29 deg C

Best I break out the winter woolies and my beanie

silvrav · « **Reply #8153 on:** October 10, 2019, 03:27:05 am »

Quote from: Mr Zog on October 10, 2019, 02:07:36 am

I'm glad y'all enjoyed the laugh

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't all that funny

We have a cold front moving through. It rained most of the day today, my rain gauge showed just a shade over 3 inches for the last 3-4 days when I got home.

The cold front is bringing very cold temps too, tonight it will drop down to 23 deg C, and tomorrow it will only get up to around 31 deg C. Friday will be even colder at 29 deg C

Best I break out the winter woolies and my beanie

One thing I dont miss of SA - the heat and humidty of some places. - and florida sounds even worse.

Its a nice 12'C currently, with summer maxes reaching 25'C and then the ruff locals sommer walk in their jandals, no shirt and just briefs

Fudmucker · « **Reply #8154 on:** October 10, 2019, 04:38:52 am »

I'm awake because I can't sleep in this heat.
One hour before dawn and it is still 16C.
I have even been putting ice water in my sleep apnea machine so the air I breathe is cooler !
I sleep on top of the bedding just with shorts on and a rotating fan stirring up the bedroom air.

Welsh · « **Reply #8155 on:** October 10, 2019, 05:00:39 am »

My site visit Lephalale today was cancelled, not complaining forecasts 37C with 60% humidity.

Takashi · « **Reply #8156 on:** October 10, 2019, 07:55:03 am »

Try staying in Doha, winter temps "drop" to a cool 20C at night, day temps hover around 25C, the locals then don leather jackets and jerseys.
Summer temps are high 40C going to 50C in the day with night temp not dropping below 35C.

I went out the aircon building at 03h00 at night and it was still 33C a week ago.

And very high humidity as well.

Ganjora · « **Reply #8157 on:** October 10, 2019, 08:16:19 am »

Quote from: silvrav on October 10, 2019, 03:27:05 am

One thing I dont miss of SA - the heat and humidty of some places. - and florida sounds even worse.

like durbs in winter.
easy to spot the vaalies.
they're the ones in the sea.

Mr Zog · « **Reply #8158 on:** October 12, 2019, 02:23:07 am »

Finally its Friday

But I am "on-call" for the weekend, and all of next week, so no major projects will get done. I have a few jobbies that I want to do on my work van, if I get the opportunity to do them I'll take some pics.

And I want to get a couple of smaller jobs done in my workshop too, same caveat.

I'm glad I'm not up North farming with TVB, even though it's hot and humid here, I prefer sitting here in shorts and a t-shirt. Last winter when it did get cooler here I think I wore long pants for 2 weeks then it got warmer again. And I'm no polar bear like Tom

The ice maker in the fridge is still cranking out the ice cubes. I'm glad, because a new fridge just isn't an option right now.

And Sammy has learned to take it a bit slower on the new flooring. He isn't wiping out quite so often anymore

Mr Zog · « **Reply #8159 on:** October 13, 2019, 04:40:24 am »

I didn't get called out today.

So I did get a couple of small projects finished.

I put a couple of longer Tapcon screws into the transition strip that needed it.
I did a "poo-patrol" in the garden. This entails walking around with a spade, scooping up all the dog poo and flinging it across the fence into the vacant lots alongside us

I repaired the piece of all weather carpeting that lives in the back of my bakkie. The duct tape that held the 3 sections together ( I used some offcut sections from a job I did years ago as a handyman to make a mat for the back of the bakkie to protect the floor) has stopped working, so I pulled it off and stuck some new tape on. Good as new.
I went to my buddy's house and helped him to move a very big, very heavy steel table that he uses as his welding table from his garage to his afdak at the back.

And I went across the street to repair the lady's toilet. It had come loose from the floor, so I had to lift it up off it's base, remove the PVC flange by cutting it out with my Sawzall, inset a new flange, bolt it to the floor, and refit the toilet. Sounds simple, but everything that could go wrong on this job did go wrong.

It started off with me dropping the porcelain lid for the cistern tank onto the tile floor and smashing it into a thousand pieces

Then the flange that I had bought was the wrong one.
Then the wax seal that the lady had bought was the wrong one.
I finally got the job done properly, but tomorrow I'll have to make her a nice custom wooden lid for her cistern as they are no longer available for that model. And the ones that I could find on eBay start at $75

I also made a new shelf with some parts bins on it for my work van. Just a piece of scrap plywood from an old workbench that I took apart that I cut, sanded, and painted with some old house paint. Then I attached some spare parts bins that we had at the shop at work.

Now I have a better place to keep my electrical testers, and other various bits and pieces.

I hate it when I fuck stuff up, so this evening I am very pissed off with myself. Tomorrow morning I'll make a new lid for our neighbour's toilet cistern, I already have a piece of scrap MDF picked out for the job. It's just the time and effort that I could have spent doing other stuff that will now be lost. Not to mention that I stuffed up her toilet.

Eish...

Pics below of the parts bins in my work van.